From the keyboard of Dr Jan

I recently spent a week in Prague at the Intercontinental Hotel. Unfortunately, their swimming pool was closed for maintenance for the entire week. However, they arranged for a hotel car to take guests (for free) along to the Hilton where we were able to use their pool and spa facilities. When I finished, I just asked the Hilton concierge to call the Intercontinental so they could send a car to pick me up. Now that’s what I call service

I have stayed at the Hilton previously, so this gave me a good opportunity to compare and contrast the two establishments.

First, let me talk about the rooms. The standard rooms at the Intercontinental are far superior to those at the Hilton. If you have a Hilton Gold Card or some other means of upgrading to an Executive room then you are approaching the quality of the Intercontinental standard rooms. I’ve never stayed in an Executive room at the Intercontinental, so I can’t comment on them. I seem to remember that the Marriott rooms were similar but slightly better than those in the Hilton – basically great if you get an upgrade, otherwise good.

Having said that, the public spaces in the Hilton are just much nicer. Because the Hilton is so huge (8 floors with over 100 rooms per floor on the non-executive levels) there is a lot of space available. The building is fundamentally square, with the rooms arranged around the edges and a huge atrium in the centre. So there is lots of room available for the lounge, which is actually on a mezzanine floor above the breakfast restaurant. By contrast, the Intercontinental is somewhat more limited in terms of available square footage. Don’t get me wrong, the Intercontinental is very good. But the Hilton is better.

After my swim I stopped by the lounge for dinner and it was superb. Everything about it was excellent; the service, the food (both choice and quality) and the ambience were all exceptional.

In other hotel related news, just to confuse matters, there is a new Hilton in town, the Hilton Prague Old Town. This is what used to be the Renaissance, just opposite the Marriott hotel. I visited the new Hilton in Prague Old Town briefly, and what I saw was a big improvement on the old Renaissance as was. The main restaurant is the Gordon Ramsay Maze restaurant, so it seemed rude not to have lunch there I had a BLT sandwich, which was rather fine

Prague Hotels have appeared previously on Twin Peaks.